Renesas-Dialog deal: MCUs evolving into powerful SoCs
Article By : Majeed Ahmad
Another analog and power chipmaker folds into the larger world of a digital semiconductor outfit aiming to bolster its mixed-signal prowess.
Renesas is about to complete the acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor. Another analog and power chipmaker folds into the larger world of a digital semiconductor outfit aiming to bolster its mixed-signal engineering prowess.
The deal is yet another reminder of how the system-on-chip (SoC) designs are reshaping the semiconductor industry in general and the analog chip sector in specific. Renesas, a leading MCU supplier, saw writing on the wall and began amassing analog design assets in the mid-2000s. It first acquired data center and automotive power specialist Intersil in 2017 and then snapped RF and mixed-signal expert Integrated Device Technology (IDT) a couple of years later.
Now, back to the Dialog deal, where the value proposition of buying the Anglo-German chipmaker and Apple supplier seems two-fold. First, when you look at the Internet of Things (IoT) designs, the secret sauce comprises mainly low-cost MCUs and low-power connectivity solutions. Here, Renesas MCUs meshed with pawer-savvy Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity can lead to powerful SoC offerings for IoT designs.
Next, while Renesas is a leading MCU supplier for automotive designs, power efficiency will be a major consideration in many auto subsystems, especially the ones serving electric vehicles (EVs). Here, Dialog’s expertise in power management ICs (PMICs) could be instrumental in creating low-power SoC solutions for areas such as battery management, infotainment, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
The acquisition of Dialog is a testament to the evolution of MCUs into more flexible and diverse SoC solutions for automotive, IoT, and more. It also demonstrates how design engineering capabilities in low-power and mixed-signal realms are going to be a hot commodity for creating more viable semiconductor solutions in the future.
This article was originally published on Planet Analog.
Majeed Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of EDN, has covered the electronics design industry for more than two decades.